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A coal-fired power station in western Germany. Photo: AFP

From HSBC to Microsoft, 91 CEOs call on COP26 to end fossil fuel subsidies

  • In an open letter, the executives also proposed slashing customs duties on climate-friendly goods and supporting technologies that help adapt to the effects of climate change
  • The signatories included chiefs from companies such as Carlsberg, Deloitte, HSBC, KPMG, Microsoft, Suntory and Tata Steel

The heads of 91 major global companies on Thursday called on the COP26 summit to abolish fossil fuel subsidies and work with business to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, brought together by the World Economic Forum (WEF), called on governments to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050, proposing steps to help businesses reduce emissions faster and scale up innovations.

In an open letter, the executives proposed eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, slashing customs duties on climate-friendly goods and supporting innovation in technologies that help adapt to the effects of climate change.

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The signatories included chiefs from Allianz, Bayer, Bloomberg, Carlsberg, Dell, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Ericsson, Heineken, HSBC, Ingka Group (Ikea), KPMG, Microsoft, Nestle, PepsiCo, Siemens, Suntory, Swiss Re and Tata Steel.

The companies are committed to reduce emissions by more than one gigatonne annually by 2030, the WEF said.

Many of them are regularly singled out by environmental protection or climate change organisations for their practices or products.
COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, is being held from Sunday to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Signatories “are committed to ambitious, and science aligned climate action, and welcome bold policies to accelerate decarbonisation efforts around the world,” said Antonia Gawel, head of the WEF’s Climate Action Platform.

The business chiefs called on COP26 to ensure that developed countries meet and exceed their US$100 billion commitment to supporting developing countries’ efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

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They urged world leaders to “eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, cut tariffs on climate-friendly goods, develop market-based, meaningful and broadly accepted carbon pricing mechanisms and take adequate measures to ensure a just transition”.

And they called for a competitive market in low-carbon technologies.

The WEF hosts the annual Davos summit of the global political and business elites. The event will return to the Swiss ski resort in January after the 2021 edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen at a press conference in Brussels on October 28, 2021. Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, the European Union’s chief on Thursday called for a show of climate leadership, warning that world leaders faced “a moment of truth”.

“What we need is, first of all, leadership,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of a weekend summit in Rome of the G20 nations.

“We need leadership for credible commitments for decarbonisation to reach the goal of net-zero mid-century,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels. “But we also need sufficient commitments to really cut the emissions this decade.”

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A new report by the UN Environment Programme has found that fresh pledges by governments to cut emissions are raising hopes, but are not strict enough to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

It concluded that recent announcements by dozens of countries, including the 27-nation EU, to aim for “net-zero” emissions by 2050 could, if fully implemented, limit a global temperature rise to 2.2 degrees Celsius (4F). That’s closer but still above the less stringent target agreed upon in the 2015 Paris climate accord of capping global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F) compared to pre-industrial times.

Von der Leyen said the world remains “on a very dangerous course” and that leaders must take immediate steps to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees.

“It’s not a question of 30-40 years. It’s now. It’s this decade where we have to get better, otherwise we risk to reach irreversible tipping points,” she said.

Leaders, diplomats, scientists and environmental activists meet in Glasgow from October 31-November 12 to discuss how countries and businesses can adjust their targets to avert the more extreme climate change scenarios that would result in a significant sea-level rise, more frequent wild weather and more droughts.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that global warming could pose “an existential threat to humanity”.

He said that he would use his trip to the G20 summit to press all countries, including major emerging economies such as China, to do more on climate change.

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